Education, Asia Scientific coordination of a remote sensing, soil and water management project

Summary

EEM acted as scientific and administrative coordinator of a three-year CIDA-funded research project in northeast Thailand applying remote sensing technologies to investigate soil and water management problems facing the region.

Approach and Solution

The absence of irrigation in northeast Thailand and the reliance on seasonal rains places many crops at risk, with widespread social implications when crops fail. Situated in the centre of the region, Khon Kaen University had become a centre for agricultural research, but it lacked tools and equipment to analyse macrogeographic patterns in soil degradation and water availability. This project, and a parallel grant of satellites image analysis equipment to Khon Kaen from the Canadian government, aimed to build capacity for this type of analysis among young academics at Khon Kaen.

Results

During the three-years of the project, several peer-reviewed research papers were co-authored by Canadian and Thai researchers and published in prominent journals, a regional conference on remote sensing was held in Khon Kaen and six academics from Khon Kaen University studied at McGill University, establishing commercial links with public and private sector Canadian partners across the country.